Radio Problems Continue For Conn. Firefighters

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Dec. 11--SHELTON -- While no major problems have been reported recently with the Fire Department's aging radio system, there have been some glitches.

These include problems reaching a rescue boat during last week's search for a missing boater in the Housatonic River and the attempt to contact two firefighters inside Shelton High School during a recent false alarm there, according to Alderman John "Jack" Finn.

"There were communications problems in both cases," Finn, a member of the White Hills Fire Company, said Wednesday.

Neither event, however, was significant enough for an official report to be filed, according to Nick Verdicchio, the department spokesman.

"We didn't receive anything about those," he said. "It's not to say that didn't happen, though."

The Fire Department, which has been trying to upgrade its radio system, recently submitted an application for a $1 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But Verdicchio said they're not banking on getting the FEMA money and if they did, it wouldn't come until fall.

"We need to get things going before then," he said.

In the meantime, a public safety committee has been meeting every Thursday working to come up with a plan to build a new radio system, Verdicchio said.

An inventory of equipment that can be kept, which includes existing radios that are compatible with the department's new UHF frequency has been completed.

"Most aren't compatible," Verdicchio said, adding he's not sure how much it will cost to buy new radios.

A few other details are needed before the committee can present its plan to the Board of Aldermen. Verdicchio estimates that could happen in early January.

Finn said aldermen last month received "two pages of problems" concerning the radio system, including events at a structure fire on Stendahl Drive. That call came in during an earlier aldermanic meeting, and Finn said his pager went off, indicating there was a fire in the city's White Hill section.

But, he said, his pager went dead and he wasn't able to determine where the fire was.

"The transmission just stopped," he said in an earlier interview.

Finn said that even though the more recent events weren't significant enough to be reported, they are part of "our ongoing concerns about our firefighters' safety.

"We just really need to have a new radio system," he said.

That matter also became a campaign issue after the FEMA application was applied for when Mayor Mark A. Lauretti challenged a claim that radios fail 50 percent of the time. Lauretti, at the time, said he knows the equipment is old and has shortcomings and needs to be replaced, but didn't agree that they fail that often.

Lauretti could not be reached for comment.

Chris Jones, a firefighter who challenged Lauretti in the mayoral race, said the matter is definitely a safety issue, one that will remain until radios are upgraded and the old, faulty failing ones are replaced.